A strategy for redeveloping former U.S. Coast Guard housing in Point Reyes Station was approved by the Marin County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday as the pressure for affordable rentals in West Marin increases amid ranch closures.
A slew of approved deeds and agreements between the county and nonprofit partners readies the paperwork to meet an April funding deadline that could finance most of the development.
This is the largest affordable housing project that includes family rental units to be proposed in West Marin, according to a report by the Marin County Community Development Agency. The development would renovate 36 existing townhomes and a 24-room barracks building previously used to house Coast Guard personnel and their families.
Once completed, the units would serve extremely low- to low-income households, defined as between 30% and 60% of the area median income. For a family of four in Marin County, that range currently translates to roughly $58,020 to $116,040 annually.
According to a presentation at Tuesday’s meeting, the annual income of a hotel worker is around $47,000 and an experienced Shoreline Unified School District school teacher makes about $94,000. Both would qualify for the new affordable housing.
The property was declared surplus by the Coast Guard in 2014. In 2016, federal legislation directed the agency to transfer the land to Marin County for affordable housing or other public purposes. The county purchased the property in 2019 for $4.3 million.
The agreement approved by the board Tuesday acts as a real estate purchase and a development contract.
Under the terms of the agreement, three parcels on the property will remain in county ownership, for roads and a new onsite wastewater system. The remaining parcel, which contains the old buildings, will be sold for $1 to nonprofit developer Tamalko Homes. With control of the site, the developer can apply for Low-Income Housing Tax Credits in April — a major funding source expected to finance much of the project.
Tamalko, a limited partnership between nonprofits Eden Housing and the Community Land Trust Association of West Marin, will design and construct the project. The county will operate and maintain the septic system next door, with the developer pitching in $60,000 a year.
The estimated cost of the project is about $55.4 million. Funding includes more than $9.4 million in local housing funds and more than $11 million from the state’s Joe Serna, Jr. Farmworker Housing Grant Program, which will reserve some units for agricultural workers and retirees from farm labor.
According to a 2024 county housing study, a majority of the housing stock in West Marin is single-unit homes, with few rental homes for families.
That gap was on display in West Marin on March 1. That was the deadline for 12 ranches on the Point Reyes National Seashore to close operations as part of a legal agreement with the National Park Service and the Nature Conservancy, leading to the displacement of 90 ranch workers.
While many of the ranchers seem to be leaving the area, the market-rate West Marin housing is largely beyond the reach of the ranch hands and tenants. Most either have to move on or get some help from the Community Land Trust Association.
CLAM has worked to create a temporary housing development in Point Reyes Station, acquired and restored other properties around town, and established a Neighbors for Neighbors program where displaced ranch tenants can find housing in West Marin at no cost or very low cost.
